UCI Layoff Notices May Go Out Today

Predicting cuts of at least 10% in state funding, UC Irvine administrators are expected to begin notifying non-faculty employees, possibly starting today, of layoffs campuswide, officials said Tuesday.

“The campus is anticipating probably 30 to 50 layoffs within the next month or so as each area is looking at its budget,” said Kathy Jones, UCI’s vice chancellor for advancement.

The layoffs are another indication of the dreary economic condition at the university that last week caused the elimination of three UCI men’s sports: baseball, cross-country and track.

“We’ve been asked to anticipate a $15-million cut campuswide. That’s about 10% of our budget,” Jones said. “If the state’s budget is worse than that, it’s possible there may be additional layoffs. But we won’t know that for some time.”

Just how deep the state budget knife will cut depends on the outcome of negotiations later this month between the Legislature and the governor’s office on a projected $11-billion shortfall in revenues. Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed erasing the gap by cuts of as much as 25% in welfare grants, trims of more than $2 billion from public school budgets, and a 15% reduction in state funds for other state programs, including universities.

University officials hoped for a budget accord later this month. But many concede that as the state’s economic health worsens, a final budget may not be reached until August or later.

Even in the best-case scenarios, layoffs will have to be made, officials said.

Despite the budget shortfall, Jones said administrators are “trying to limit the cuts to the non-degree-granting programs and administration.”

University officials Tuesday declined to release the exact number of people affected by the layoffs or to say when they would be announced.

William H. Parker, associate executive vice chancellor at UCI, said he had been told that notification of layoffs within the university’s College of Medicine may begin as soon as today but cautioned that it might occur later in the month.

“I’m not sure about the exact timing,” Parker said. But “like everyone within the public sector, the university will be reducing its work force through attrition, retirement and with great reluctance a small number of layoffs.”

In an effort to make the layoffs “as humane and supportive as possible,” administrators will implement a plan of “retraining, helping in placement and developing preferential lists for rehiring,” Jones said. “That is really important to the people here.”

UCI Chancellor Jack W. Peltason, who was in Sacramento and unavailable for comment late Tuesday, wouldn’t comment on possible layoffs or other areas of cuts in an interview Monday.

But in discussing campus preparations for anticipated cuts, Peltason said: “Academics will be the last cut. We will try to preserve classes and faculty and class size. . . . Support staff will be the area with the biggest cuts.” He added: “You’re going to see fewer supplies, cuts in library services. It will all hurt.”

Peltason said internal discussions about staff layoffs have been “going on with our people across campus. Each control group is looking at their budget and coming up with recommendations. Until the Legislature acts on the state budget, we won’t know how much the cuts will be.”

Peltason said the various department heads have been asked to prepare alternative plans for 6%, 12% and 18% cuts in their budgets. Those are in the works, he said.